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The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is aiding Africa in deploying third generation satellites that will enable National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) to deliver precise and accurate weather information.
Experts attending the Joint Intra-ACP Climate Services and Related Applications (ClimSA) and Space for Early Warning in Africa (SEWA) Forum in Windhoek, Namibia noted that the success of SEWA will highly depend on accurate use of meteorological data delivered by EUMETSAT satellites.
EUMETSAT delivers satellite data to end-users as well as contributes to the operational monitoring of climate and the detection of global climate changes as they primarily focus on improved data collection and analysis for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
According Vincent Gabaglio who is in charge of strategy, communication and international relations, EUMETSAT will train African meteorologists on proper utilisation of data provided by the new satellites so as to be able to get more value out of the data.
“We help in the retransmission of the data,” said Gabaglio and added, “the countries along the River Nile at times there face difficulty in getting the information back to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS), so we use the satellites to collect the data and send them to the weather stations’ central office.”
One such training centre for African meteorologists will be at the Institute of Meteorological Training and Research (IMTR) in Dagoreti Corner in Nairobi, Kenya. The training and use of the technology is coming in handy when the globe is going through the challenges of climate change and other weather-related hazards and disasters that require realtime information to be able to deal with the resultant challenge.
“We need to train a critical mass of people, because it is new technology and forecasters need to be trained adequately,” said Gabaglio.
The Head of Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Environment Department at Agriconsulting Europe S.A. (AESA), Ottavio Novelli, sustainable development is dependent on resilience to climate change. He notes that investment in agriculture that is resilient to climate change, “consuming less water, yet improving on yields so that Africa can feed itself,” he said during the launch of Space for Early Warning in Africa (SEWA).
Novelli is of the opinion that big capital cities like Accra, Lagos, Dakar, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, “that will be more affected by climate change, so Africa should organise itself with the south-south cooperation as well as collaborate with European countries that are also facing the same challenge of climate change and learn from the research from scientists for better managed cities.”
The Head of Climate Change department at AESA notes that the socio economic tools for climate change can aid in assisting in decision making as to where the budgets are needed most when addressing the impacts of climate change.
The Abidjan Declaration, that was signed in 2018, focused on leveraging the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellite system for improved weather and climate services in Africa, emphasising on strengthening “African capacities to utilize data from the new generation of satellites for operational services and early warning systems through the establishment and operationalization of the African Meteorological Application Facility (AMSAF).”
The SEWA project is aimed at enhancing the resilience of member States’ through improved access to and use of Earth Observation (EO) meteorological data, and weather services; Strengthening human capacities, knowledge and community shaping across the Early Warning value chain with a focus on space-based data and technologies; Strengthened coordination with institutional frameworks for hazardous weather and climate early warning and knowledge sharing across regions through the establishment and operationalization of the African Meteorological Satellite Application Facility (AMSAF); and Strengthened Impact-Based Forecasting capabilities and continental, regional and national levels.
